Spike Lee’s ‘Oldboy’ Gets a Poster; Trailer Arrives This Week

Film District is launching its marketing blitz for Oldboy this week, beginning with today’s unveiling of the film’s official poster. The project – from director Spike Lee and screenwriter Mark Protosevich (I Am Legend) – is part American remake of the cult Korean film directed by Chan-wook Park (Stoker), part re-interpretation of the source graphic novel by Nobuaki Minegishi, and part original story content that Protosevich and Lee developed (to re-envision the movie’s foreign-language predecessor).

A red-band trailer for Oldboy will drop online this Wednesday, presumably followed by an MPAA-approved preview not long thereafter. A teaser poster for the film was glimpsed back at a test screening earlier this year, but the newly-launched one-sheet is quite different (as you can see below, following the official synopsis):

OLDBOY is a provocative, visceral thriller that follows the story of an advertising executive (Josh Brolin) who is abruptly kidnapped and held hostage for 20 years in solitary confinement. When he is inexplicably released, he embarks on an obsessive mission to discover who orchestrated his bizarre and torturous punishment only to find he is still trapped in a web of conspiracy and torment.

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The above poster teases what Brolin’s character looks like after his twenty-year imprisonment, with his sunglasses and suit being an homage to the outfit worn by Min-sik Choi as the protagonist in Park’s film (the only difference is that Brolin’s “Oldboy” gets a haircut). It will be interesting to find out what are the other ways in which Lee’s movie nods/pays respect to Park’s acclaimed feature – especially with the ending, which producer Roy Lee has boasted is, in some ways, even darker than the conclusion to Park’s film (which, without spoiling anything, is really saying something).

Other members of the Oldboy cast include Sharlto Copley (Elysium), Elizabeth Olsen (Godzilla) and Samuel L. Jackson (RoboCop), each playing either a pivotal central or important supporting role in the film.

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mido stitou 1 year ago

it will be hard to for spike lee to do the amazing work of Chan-wook Park but i guess this one will be good too so we have to wait

He was released the same way in the original, and in the same black suit and shirt, the only difference being that Oh Dae-su had to steal his sunglasses. Which would be a necessity after having spent 15-20 years locked in a room with no natural light.

Yes I’ve seen the original several times, but when Choi burst out of the chest, he was gasping for air, stumbling around; confused and disoriented. Makes sense to me. I know this is just a poster, but Brolin looks like he’s about to ride that chest into battle. He’ll probably play it more realistically in the actual movie, but I still stand by my comment that this poster is just weird.

most American adaptations of previously made foreign works tend to suck, most not all so there are a few that turned out good. However, they either dumb the plot down (because for some reason hollywood thinks that all viewers are idiots) or they change a number of things that they think we can’t handle, which detracts from the impact and tone of the original story, thus making a sad insulting mockery of the original. I mean i’ll wait until I see a trailer, but Spike Lee(who really hasn’t been really that relevant since the early and mid 90′s and has made a number of slightly critically enjoyed but not as successful films as of late) remaking one of my favorite films by one of my favorite Korean film makers does not get me a warm tingly sensation. and i don’t feel like i’m being elitist in any way for being a fan of the original.